Outside the Beltway

Thomas and Alito Not Expected to Retire

The two oldest members of the Supreme Court are taking a big gamble.

James Joyner · Saturday, April 18, 2026 · 4 comments

ABC News (“Supreme Court Justices Alito, Thomas not expected to retire this year: Sources“):

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, the subject of intensifying speculation about a potential retirement before the midterm elections, is not expected to leave the bench this year, sources close to the justice have told ABC News.

Alito, 76, has been hiring clerks for next term and intends to continue serving into at least 2027, the sources who have spoken to Alito told ABC.

Fox News first reported the justice’s intentions.

Alito has remained an active and engaged participant in the court’s work, even after he was briefly hospitalized earlier this year for a health scare of undisclosed origin.

The staunch conservative, arguably best known for authoring the landmark 2022 opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, had been widely rumored to be contemplating retirement given his age and the likelihood he could easily be replaced by a jurist of similar judicial philosophy given the Trump presidency and Republican control of the Senate.

Alito’s apparent decision to remain — which could change at any time — takes off the table a high-stakes, high-profile confirmation battle on the eve of the midterm elections.

The court’s most senior member — 77-year-old conservative Justice Clarence Thomas — is also expected to remain on the bench, sources have told ABC.

Thomas continues to love the work, sources close to him have said, and in the next few years will eclipse the record for longest-serving justice in American history.

Speculation on the retirement of Supreme Court Justices has been a perennial game for as long as I can remember, and it has heated up in the wake of Mitch McConnell’s successful refusal to vote on President Obama’s 11th-hour appointment of Merrick Garland to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Most recently, there was considerable pressure on the then-69-year-old Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire around this time in 2024, so that President Biden could appoint a younger liberal for confirmation before a Democratic-controlled Senate.

I take the same position now that I did then: while Justices have every right to hold onto their lifetime appointment for as long as they want, they’re political actors with some duty to consider the balance on the court. I’m honestly rather surprised, in particular, with Alito, who has become a very predictable partisan hack, isn’t stepping down to let Trump appoint a successor. There’s a very good chance, indeed, that there will be a Democratic Senate in 2027 and 2028 and that they will follow McConnell’s example and hold the seat open in hopes their party retakes the White House in the 2028 election.

While Thomas, too, has become increasingly obvious in his partisanship, he has long marched to the beat of his own drummer. I think he enjoys confounding expectations and being something of a fly in the ointment. And, certainly, he’s enjoyed the perquisites of the office as much as anyone.

The demographics of the current Court are interesting, indeed. Thomas, Alito, Sotomayor, and Chief Justice Roberts are all in their 70s. Justices Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh are in their 60s. And Justices Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Amy Coney Barrett are all in their 50s. If Trump doesn’t appoint replacements for Thomas and Alito, the ideological makeup of the Court could change radically in a couple of years even without a court-packing scheme.